Poiesis

Peter Acton's book revolutionizes the current views on the ancient Athenian economy. Against old orthodoxies, it proves that just like the towns of medieval and early modern word and despite the inevitable differences in institutional framework, Athens was an 'industrious city.' The Weberian model of the 'ancient consumer city' is dead and should definitely be replaced by that of the 'manufacturing city.' Alain Bresson, University of Chicago Only highly fragmentary information has survived concerning any aspect of Athenian manufacturing, and almost all of this scanty evidence is preserved merely in passing in works devoted to cultural and/or literary aspects of Athenian high culture, or in material remains lacking context. This void has precluded-until now-any serious scholarly investigation of Athenian manufacturing. Acton's efforts to place the fragmentary ancient evidence within a matrix of considerations developed by modern business analysts and consultants, supplemented by insights from modern craft activities, augmented by comparative evidence skillfully selected and honed by the author, here generates a new, and persuasive, paradigm relating to Athenian manufacturing. It is a pioneering academic advance. Edward Cohen, University of Pennsylvania Poiesis is a remarkable book, which gives us not just the first detailed look at classical Athenian manufacturing in more than a century, but also a whole new way for thinking about ancient industry. Drawing important lessons from his own extensive experience as a business consultant, Peter Acton has made a major contribution to the ongoing debates about the structure and performance of the ancient Greek economy. Ian Morris, Stanford University